One of the best things you can do for your team and your entire career is to get clear on what you do, how you do it, why you do it and why you want them to do their jobs a certain way. Then drive those points home through constant and consistent application. Inconsistent leadership and application of policies and procedures would be at or near the top of any survey regarding employee dissatisfaction. Should there be exceptions to the rule? Maybe, but they certainly should be few and far between. When you have demonstrated to your team how you do things and what your expectations are, and have consistently applied them you can reach a whole host of benefits:

Makes everything quicker – That line outside your office door suddenly disappears. Why? Because your team already knows what you are going to say so they don’t need to run every idea by you or get your approval. You have cut through the uncertainty, which means no hesitation in moving forward.

Empowers your team – By understanding your values and guidelines they are free to operate within those and take ownership of their work. They understand what you consider acceptable and unacceptable so they don’t need to come to you to ask for priorities, they just do their job.

Frees your time – One of the most obvious results of the above is that your team “needs” you less. Many people have relayed to me times when a customer would ask to speak with a manager and they simply told the customer that they had already offered them exactly what the manager would. The customer would then accept the offer and the manager needed not be bothered. Similar to that story, you won’t need to set as many priorities, review as much material, and what you do view will be closer to what you want the final product to be. All of this leaves more time for you to explore ways to get better results.

If you need any more proof, imagine if you have an unpredictable and inconsistent boss? Do you need to run everything by them? Are you unclear on priorities? Is there a line stretching around the hall to see them? Sure there are times when you need to make exceptions or when your experience would have helped a particular task or project along, but those should be relatively few and far between (at least the ones you couldn’t predict yourself).

So seek out what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and how you want your team to behave? If you can get clear on these questions and apply them consistently you’ll see not only better results from your team, but greater satisfaction as well.

I would love to know your thoughts on this post so please leave your likes and comments below. Also, if you haven't checked out any of mythree books yet, give them a lookhere, I am absolutely positive they will be a great help in your career!